I have a ton of pictures so I thought I'd split this post into two parts, my front porch and my back porch.  Here is a photo of my front porch:

I've always wanted a big front porch!  Living in the South  just isn't the same without one.  Where would I drink all my Mint Juleps?  Please ignore the fact that it desperately needs to be powerwashed.  Here is a close up:

Impatiens have always grown really well here.  It doesn't get a lot of sun.  There is usually a cat or dog peeking out from the bottom pane of the window next to the door!
Here's the porch swing:

And the wicker rockers on the other side:
Here's my beautiful crabapple tree (one of two in the front yard):

And finally, my rose garden along the east side of my house.  Juan started buying me the mini rose bushes for Mother's Day each year after we moved in and planted them here.  Can you tell that pink is my favoite color?

I hope you enjoyed seeing my house and garden.  Tomorrow will be a tour of the back yard and my vegetable garden!

Have a great Friday and I'll see y'all tomorrow!

I'm having trouble uploading my photos from today of my garden.  Everyone in the house is sharing the Broadbrand right now and I think I'll have an easier time tomorrow when all but one of them is gone.

I'm trying!!! 

 
Watch out for the butt-pinching leprechauns!

I actually have two very different problems with shingles today.  The first is with my roof.  We have had a slow leak in the eat-in kitchen area for about 2 years.  Two years ago we had gutters put on our house.  Coincidence??  The gutter guys will be coming next week to check it out.  I'm sorry that I don't have a picture yet, but I will.  We've had a lot of rain in the past week so it's getting very bad.  My house is only ten years old and just shouldn't have problems like this already.

The other problems with shingles is one I won't show you pictures of, for sure.  I have a shingles infection on my neck and boy oh boy does it hurt.  I though it was just a huuuuge pimple on the back of my neck but it's spreading and is getting disgusting.  I have a messed up immune system (autoimmune problems) so I probably came in contact with some one carrying chicken pox in the past weeks and it reactivated my long-dormant virus.   It feels so strange; it's like my neck is on fire and touching it is excruciating.  Just wearing a shirt hurts today.

That's my life today.  Anyone want to switch lives with me??

I signed up to be a part of the Interview Experiment at citizenofthemonth.com.  I received some wonderful questions and here I go.  These are from Headbang8:
(deutschlanduberelvis.blogspot.com)

Your ten questions!
Here are your ten questions for the interview project at Citizenofthemonth.com. Happy answering!

1. You and I are about as different as it is possible to be. Discuss.
I think you'd be surprised at how alike we are!  In my previous life (before kids) I worked as a social worker in New York City working exclusively with people with AIDS.  I met the most wonderful men there, both in my office and as clients.  It was the late 80's and new programs were being put into place to help and stigmas were thankfully beginning to subside.  I met gay actors, writers, musicians, makeup artists and I adored them.  When I became pregnant I was given the most amazing baby shower by those men and also showered with love by them.  That experience changed me forever; I had never met such wonderful people that were so different from.  Or so I thought.

2. Does Juan ever get sick of people making a pun out of his name? I mean, like when he gets a strike in bowling, I bet somebody shouts "And another Juan bites the dust!" Or maybe sometimes you ask him "Juanna go upstairs for some nookie?" The rest of the world thinks this stuff is terribly funny, but does he?
He is my "Juan" and only!  He's always there whenever I "Juan"-t him to be, and even when I "Juan"-t to be alone.  I don't care if he thinks that it's funny......cause I sure do!!  How about "Juan" more??

3. In relationships, there's usually a moment when you fall in love--to use a cliche, a "tipping point". What was the tipping point when you knew you were in love with Juan? Or was it love at first sight?
It was love at first sight for me.  I met him at an insurance agency we both worked at in 1988.  The problem was that I was already living with and engaged to someone else.  Oops.  We started living together on May 1, 1989 and were married on December 30, 1989.  I love him more every single day of my life.  We'll be married 19 years this year!

4. Cystitis. That sounds terrible. Are you OK?  
 Interstitial cystits is a disease that effects the lining of the bladder.  I have ulcerations of the lining and that allows urine to burn the actually inner and VERY sensitive liner.  It's unbelievable painful and there is no reliable treatment or cure. I was 33 when it started and I feel into a deep, dark depression.  Chronic pain can actually alter your brain chemistry.  I was on Oxycontin for 8 years.  When I decided to get off 2 years ago I realized that the Oxy had stopped working.  It's always with me, some days worse than others.  It's disabled me along with lupus but it is my life and it's the only one I've got.  I've chosen to concentrate on what I DO have, which is a wonderful family and loving friends and carry on.  I'd rather be here on Earth and in pain as opposed to being dead and leaving my family forever. Don't worry about me!  I'm waaay tougher than I look!

5. Now, socks. Do you only knit socks, or are there other things? Why socks? Have you got a bit of a foot-fetish happening? Hmmm...
I LOVE KNITTING SOCKS!!  It's an addiction for me!  I think that the reason I love them so much has to do with the fact that I have absolutely no patience whatsoever, and socks are quick projects.  I made sweaters before and they are SOOOOO boring!!  If you need some socks, let me know!

6. If socks are handmade, do they tend to stay together longer? I mean, is a handmade sock les likely to become an odd sock? By the way, what's your theory on where odd socks go--a popular one is that the rings around Saturn are made of odd socks. 
If anyone loses one of my handmade socks I will strangle them with the other!!  I think that my dog has a secret stash of missing socks buried somewhere in the crawl space under my house!

7. Now, I'm going to ask you a confrontig question, here. I'm trying to read between the lines of your September 4 post, and a few others--do a bit of Freudian sleuthing. You refer to your teenaged kids as "my babies", and love to post their baby pix. Do the kids find that a little embarassing? Could that be why they stopped smiling for pictures? Does Juan smile for the camera much?--you said he mugs as usual in the Christmas post. The whole kids-stopped-smiling-thing intrigues me, and I'd love to hear your take on it.
(There. To get even, you can ask me one confronting question and I'll post my honest answer on my blog!) 
I am the paparazzi of our household.  They'll never know where I am hiding at any moment of the day!  Kids are hams when they're little and become more self-conscious as they become teens.  I have thousands of photos of them over the years, and my feeling is that if they don't want their photos taken that's too bad!!  I went through countless months of pregnancy and days of labor bringing them into this world; they'll have photos taken of them anytime I want!!  I actually find their frowns to be hilarious!  My kids know that I am certifiably insane and that I love them more than anything in the world.  What Mom wants, Mom gets!! ;o)  Juan just loves making funny faces in my photos of him.  Or perhaps that is his face??

8. A woman who hates shopping? How could it be?
See above:  no patience.  I want to get in, get what I need and then get the hell out.  I have better things to do, like torment my kids.

9. Now, I don't have an Elvis-themed blog, but I do pay minor homage to him. What's your recipie for Fried Bologna Sandwiches? Can you use mortadella instead? And why do we pronounce the lunchmeat and the Italian city differently when they are spelled the same? Are the Italians wrong?
I am half Italian so I'll ignore the ridiculous are Italians wrong question!  My family actually prefers Elvis' peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches!  I always use Oscar Mayer bologna and American cheese for my sandwich.  Mortadella??  I don't THINK so!!

10. It must feel great to have a stable life in a comfortable house. Is your house a source of comfort and security to you? I've moved about so much in my life, living in apartments, it must feel great to settle down. Tell me a little about your home--what you love about it, what makes it special. 
We moved into this house 10 years ago and I love it!  I am not one who enjoys change and I feel lucky to have established roots here.  We have been having terrible difficulty staying here, however.  My husband lost his job soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks and has yet to recover more than 60% of his previous salary.  I am not entitled to any disability pay at all.  It has been a terrible struggle to stay here and watch as our monthly mortgage payments increase, along with all of our other bills.  Every month is a challenge and my greatest hope is that we can stay in this house through January 20, 2009.  That's the day our terrible President George W. Bush leaves office, finally.  I'm hoping that things will improve after that.  Hope is all I have at this point.  My wish is to have my grandchildren come to visit the house where their parents grew up.

Thank you so much for your wonderful questions!  I'll keep checking your blog!!
Lots of love, L.

Today is a quiet and sleepy Saturday.  Yesterday Juanny and I finished off the last few purchases for the kids so there is no need to brave the stores this weekend.  Thank goodness for that because I hate hate hate shopping with crowds.  I'm not a shopper by nature so having to do it with a lot of other people just makes me crazy!!  I've been home with my kids now for almost 17 years (!!) and I always choose to hit the stores when everyone else is at work.  Online shopping is a giant blessing for me.  I'm beginning to think that I'm getting agoraphobic!

I feel awful today.  I have a fever and absolutely no energy.  Days like this are hard for me; I still get angry when my body won't cooperate with what my brain has planned.  You'd think after all these years of this crap it wouldn't bother me so much but it does.  More than ever.

Enough whining! I hope y'all are having a peaceful Saturday-before-Christmas too!  If not, just think of it this way:  it'll be over in 3 days!!

Merry Christmas!

I had the pleasure today of meeting Mary from www.marysvirginwool.blogspot.com!!  We were going to meet last Friday but bad weather put our visit off until today!!  We met at the Knitting Basket (I was late, of course and mostly lost) and we had a great time!!  She's so sweet and has the MOST beautiful eyes and had a great time just being in a room full of wool!!  We had a wonderful lunch at Peking and I was so good sticking to my no-carb torture diet!  She's adorable and so easy to talk to; I hope she didn't think I was TOO insane with all the cats I have.  Here's a photo of us as we said goodbye:


It was a beautiful day here in Richmond!  Thanks so much,Mary, for a wonderful afternoon!  I hope that we do it again soon!!

Since my Alex was born in 1991 we've taken a yearly Christmas photo of the kids (kid for 2 years and then kids after that!!) It was in the Dark Ages before digital photography (horrors!) so we would take a roll of film and shoot the entire thing and pray that we would get a decent shot.  Alex is 10 months old here.  It was his first photo shoot; he couldn't sit up yet so posing him was like trying to balance a Weebil on the sofa.  He was laughing the entire time and we got a great shot of him:

It's amazing to me to realize that this little tiny baby boy is now my handsome almost-17 year old!  We draped a tablecloth over the back of the sofa and didn't notice that we had hung it upside down!!  He's playing with the Muppet Babies dolls that I had gotten from McDonald's two years before.  They are still part of our holiday decorations!!

The next photo is from 1993.  It's my Monica's first christmas and Alex's third.  She's about 8 months old and Alex is 2 and a half.  It was our last Christmas in NYC; two months later we moved to Virginia.  She was such a happy baby; she smiled all the time and had these amazing dimples1  She still has those amazing dimples and I just can't be mad at her for long when she flashes me that sweet dimpled grin!  She couldn't sit up either so we placed her on her belly with big brother nearby.  I just love the beautiful smiles:
  

I can't believe that she is 14!!  She has the exact same face still; only with more teeth!!

I'll post the rest of the Christmas photos each day this week.  They get cuter and cuter as the years go on!!  See y'all tomorrow!!

I just came back from Barnes and Noble with this:

My name is Liz and I am an Ipod dummy.  I bought myself a used Mini two weeks ago from Ebay and at last count have dumped the entire contents (about 760 songs) off it FOUR TIMES.  After I did it again yesterday I decided it might be time for some outside assistance.  Forget asking my kids; they act like I am the dumbest human that ever walked the earth.  My programmer husband??  Even less helpful.  So I guess I'm on my own.

I'm going to start reading it tonight after Countdown (my favorite show!) and I will conquer the Mighty Itunes and Ipod.  If not, I will take a picture of my cute little silver Mini tomorrow after I take a hammer to it.  Anyone want to wager on the outcome??  My guess is that the odds are NOT in my favor!